Riffenburgh Elementary School

My son was enrolled in this school and they released information about him to his grandfather who was not listed as a contact, and then allowed his grandfather to unenroll my son from attending this school without my permission to move him out of state.

Harris Bilingual School's dual language approach does not work well to teach native English-speaking students to communicate in Spanish. From first grade through third grade, students focus mainly on their native language (English or Spanish) in two separate groups. Starting in fourth grade, there is an attempt to merge the two groups and increase the amount of Spanish instruction, however, at that point, native English-speaking students do not have the Spanish-language foundation necessary to understand the grade-level texts that continue to be used year after year. Students are not encouraged to make an effort when it comes to speaking in their non-native language. Teachers often translate texts into English to "help" students understand. This doesn't help students to step outside their comfort zone of their native language. Harris switches between English weeks and Spanish weeks, the goal being to speak the language of the week. However, there is very little Spanish spoken in either week by teachers - particularly to native English-speaking students.